Psalm cxix. 37.-"TURN AWAY MINE EYES FROM BEHOLDING VANITY; AND QUICKEN THOU ME IN THY WAY. 2013. I'll Keep my Eyes shut.-A Lesson for the Young.-Little Henry had been very sick. When he was slowly recovering, and just able to be up and about the room, he was left alone a short time, when his sister came in eating a piece of cake. Henry's mother had told him he must eat nothing but what she gave him, and that it would not be safe for him to have what the other children had till he was stronger. His appetite was coming back; the cake looked inviting; he wanted very much to take a bite of it, and his kind sister would gladly have given it to him. What did he do? 'Jennie," said he, " you must run right out of the room away from me with that cake, and I'll keep my eyes shut while you go, so that I shan't want it." Wasn't that a good way for a little boy of seven years to get out of temptation? I think so. And when I heard of it, I thought that there are a great many times when children, and grown up people too, if they would remember little Henry's way, would escape from sin and trouble.-Young Pilgrim. John vii. 37.-- IF ANY MAN THIRST, LET HIM COME UNTO ME, AND DRINK. Ezekiel xviii. 31.-"WHY WILL YE DIE?" 2014. Salvation within the Reach of all.-Dying for WaterA ship was sailing in the southern waters of the Atlantic, when her crew saw another vessel making signals of distress. They bore down toward the distressed ship and hailed them. "What is the matter?" "We are dying for water," was the response. 66 "Dip it up, then!" was answered. You are in the mouth of the Amazon river!" There those sailors were thirsting, and suffering, and fearing, and longing for water, and supposing that there was nothing but the ocean's brine around them, when, in fact, they had sailed unconsciously into the broad mouth of the mightiest river on the globe and did not know it. And though to them it seemed that they must perish with thirst, yet there was a hundred miles of fresh water all around them, and they had nothing to do but to "dip it up!" Jeremiah xxiii. 29.-"IS NOT MY WORD LIKE AS A FIRE? SAITH THE LORD; AND LIKE A HAMMER THAT BREAKETH THE ROCK IN PIECES ?" 2015. Power of God's Word.-The Infidel Converted.-A Scripture reader, visiting from room to room, tried a door which had hitherto been locked; but finding it open, he prepared to enter the apartment. On this the neighbours, one and all, sought to prevent him. "Do not go there," said one; "your life is in danger. The man in there is dying, and he threatens to kill any one who shall read or speak to him of the Bible." 66 66 "And," said another, 'he curses the very name of God, and says there is no God, and no heaven nor hell either." “You ask me not to go," said the Scripture reader. Why, if he is dying, and in such a state, it is to him I must go, and without delay. Do not fear for me. He is with me who has all hearts in His power, and I take with me the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." On a wretched bed in one corner of the room lay the dying infidel. His once athletic form was evidently much wasted with disease; but collecting his strength, he turned at the entrance of the missionary, and quickly perceiving the object of his visit, fixed on him a look in which hatred and scorn were mingled. He then cursed and swore with all his might that he would get up, if he died in the attempt, and take the life of any one who read to him out of that accursed book. He also declared his own belief in the non-existence of a God. The Scripture reader stood at some little distance and read two or three verses from the book of life, and was preparing to pray, when the wretched man vowed, if he did so, he would strike him with a large knife which lay beside him. Yet did the man of God pray earnestly in few words, and no effort was made to carry the threats into execution. It would take too long to relate how the Scripture reader visited there daily, and with much the same results for about a week; and yet in faith he committed it to Him who can work and none hinder. One night, on leaving the sick man, he thought his manner a little softened; but no words can depict his astonishment when the next morning he was summoned in haste to the death-bed scene. There lay the once hardened man ; but oh! how changed! The old things had passed away, and all had become new. He stretched out his hands to the Scripture reader, while he told him that all night he had been praying to the Lord Jesus, who had given him His free pardon, and blotted out all his sins. Such joy and thankfulness were depicted on his countenance, and words of praise and thanksgiving on his lips, that all present could only look on in amazement, and exclaim, "What hath God wrought!" Such a glorious death-bed scene the missionary said he had never witnessed, and to the latest hour of his life he should never cease to bless God for it. His heart seemed too full for utterance as he related it. The word had indeed been made as a hammer, to break the rock in pieces.-C. W. James iv. 7.-"RESIST THE DEVIL, AND HE WILL FLEE FROM YOU." 2016. Resist Temptation.-A Lesson for the Young.-Two little boys were on their way to Sunday school one fine morning, when one said to the other, "Let us have a walk in the fields instead of going to school; father and mother will not know it." The other little boy in reply said, "God will know. I shall go to school; for I promised to be there this morning, and by so doing I shall get a reward. You had better come along with me, and overcome the temptation of the devil. Come along, Tommy, that's the best way." Luke xxii. 42.-"NOT MY WILL, BUT THINE, BE DONE.' 2017. God's Denials a Proof of His Love.-The Two Fathers.I once knew two men who lived near each other, in similar worldly circumstances, but who adopted opposite methods in the treatment of their children. The boys of this family obtained money from their father when they asked it, and spent it according to their own pleasure, without his knowledge or control; the boys of that family often asked, but seldom received, a similar supply. The father who frequently thwarted his children's desires, loved his children more deeply, and, as the result showed, more wisely, than the father who could not summon courage sufficient to say No. The wise father bore with his own when they pleaded for some dangerous indulgence, and the hearing wounded his tender heart but, by reason of his greater love, he bore the pain of hearing their cry without granting their request. The other parent was too indolent and self-pleasing to endure such a strain, and he lived to taste bitter fruit from the evil seed which his own hand had sown.-Arnot, on the Parables of our Lord. ; Ecclesiastes ii. 11.-"THEN I LOOKED ON ALL THE WORKS THAT MY HANDS HAD WROUGHT, AND ON THE LABOUR THAT I HAD LABOURED TO DO: 2018. Worldly Things Unsatisfying.-The Worm at the Core.— There was a rich man at the court of king Herod; he was his high chamberlain, and was clothed in costly apparel, and lived in the greatest state and magnificence. And there came to him from distant lands a friend of his youth, whom he had not seen for many years. Anxious to do him honour, the high chamberlain made a great feast, and invited all his friends. The tables were laden with the most delicate viands on dishes of gold and silver, and many costly vessels filled with wines of all kinds. The rich man sat at the head of his table; on his right hand sat the friend who had come from distant lands; and they ate, and drank, and were satisfied. Then said the stranger to the king's high chamberlain, “I have never seen such magnificence as this in my native land." And be praised all he saw, and esteemed his friend the happiest of men. But the rich man, the king's high chamberlain, took an apple from off a golden dish; the apple was large and smooth, and rosy as the cheek of a sleeping infant; and as he handed it to his friend he said, "Behold this apple, it lay upon a golden dish, and it is lovely to look upon." And the stranger, the friend of his youth, took the apple and cut it through; but, alas! at its core was a worm! Then the stranger gave a glance towards his host. But the high chamberlain looked down and sighed.-DR. KRUMMACHER. Genesis 1. 1.-"AND JOSEPH FELL UPON HIS FATHER'S FACE, AND WEPT UPON HIM, AND KISSED HIM." 2019. Filial Affection in the East.-A Scene in the Desert.-We dismounted at the door of a spacious tent in the centre of the encampment. No sooner had our sheikh touched the ground than he was affectionately embraced by his son, a fine boy of about fifteen. This scene at once brought to my mind some incidents recorded in Scripture, and seemed, in fact, to realize the interesting narratives of patriarchal times. The youth placed his hands on his father's neck, and kissed each cheek, and then they leaned their heads for a few seconds, while embracing, on each other's shoulders. Precisely similar was the scene at the meeting of Jacob and his son Joseph, nearly four thousand years ago.-Porter's Five Years in Damascus. 2 Samuel iii. 31.-"GIRD YOU WITH SACKCLOTH." 2020. Sackcloth.-Sacks are usually made of hair in the East; whence we may understand that where sackcloth is mentioned, haircloth is intended. Hence the idea is different from that which we, whose sacks are not of the same material, would affix to the term. That this is correct, seems to be confirmed by the fact that the use of haircloth as a penitential dress was retained by the early Oriental monks, hermits, and pilgrims, and was adopted by the Roman church, which still retains it for the same purposes. Haircloth was, moreover, called "sackcloth" by the early Greek and Latin fathers, and this seems conclusive. Perhaps, in a general sense, the word means any kind of very coarse cloth, but undoubtedly more particularly cloth of hair than any other. There is a reference on this practice of assuming a mortifying dress as an expression of grief or repentance in Exod. xxxiii. 4. The principle is so obvious that there are few nations among which, in mournings for the dead, some kind of mortifying habit has not been adopted. We do not know that sackcloth is now much used for this purpose |